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No citrus aid in latest disaster relief request from White House

Naples
Published 12:20 p.m. ET Nov. 18, 2017

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The White House plans to ask the U.S. Congress on Friday for $44 billion in additional aid for disaster relief to cover damage from hurricanes that struck Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida, a congressional aide said on late Thursday.
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U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson, center, and Marco Rubio, right, tour the Story Grove in Lake Wales, Fl., in September after Hurricane Irma knocked large numbers of oranges from trees.(Photo: Brian Blanco, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Florida's decimated citrus industry was left out of the Trump administration's latest request to Congress for disaster relief, leaving growers without the assistance they've been counting on to rescue their livelihoods after Hurricane Irma tore through their groves.

The lack of orange aid in the $44 billion request announced Friday disappointed and angered Sunshine State lawmakers who had thought their patience would be rewarded.

The bill still must make its way through Congress where leaders have pledged to find money for citrus aid.

But GOP Rep. Tom Rooney, who represents scores of growers in Southwest Florida, said the White House's decision not to include citrus aid makes that effort "a much steeper climb" on Capitol Hill.

He called the omission "flabbergasting" and "dumbfounding," especially after U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue met with growers, toured ravaged groves and promised help following Irma's destruction

The September storm that pummeled the Sunshine State flooded groves and uprooted trees, many of them only weeks from harvest. An estimated 421,176 acres of citrus production were affected by hurricane or tropical storm force winds in a state that provides 60 percent of the nation's orange juice supply.

The 54 million boxes of oranges the U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting for the 2017-18 season would be the lowest harvest in decades. The industry is projecting the haul at closer to 31 million boxes, which would be the smallest harvest since 1942.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has estimated the cost of covering losses to the citrus industry from Hurricane Irma at around $761 million.

Putnam, Rubio, Rooney joined Perdue in September on a helicopter tour of groves devastated by Irma. The secretary noted in a tweet that "staggering crop loss from #Irma will test resilience of growers."

And he promised to help them get the federal aid to help them recover.

Meghan Rodgers, a spokeswoman for Perdue, said the secretary has directed USDA agencies "to offer as much flexibility as possible" to a range of Florida farmers from citrus growers to ranchers from a bevy of programs "to ensure producers are able to receive all authorized assistance."

Many farmers have crop insurance to cover much of their losses, though Rooney said many did not carry coverage because it was too expensive or did not offer the benefits they wanted.

For those without insurance, Rodgers said compensation is available to producers who purchased coverage through the USDA's Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which protects non-insurable crops against natural disasters that result in lower yields, crop losses or prevented planting.

In addition, she said Florida citrus producers can receive helpthrough USDA's Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, Citrus Greening prevention and eradication efforts, and the Foreign Market Development program designed to help increase their exports.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue(Photo: Photo special to The News-Press)

"Secretary Perdue has instructed USDA to respond to the needs of the citrus industry with every program at our disposal," Rodgers said. "At every turn, USDA has attempted to put people ahead of paperwork, in accordance with President Trump's directive in the wake of the hurricanes."

The White House request to Congress for $44 billion would be the third — and largest — round of disaster aid to address the widespread damage inflicted by hurricanes and wildfires over the last three months.

The bulk of the money — $25.2 billion — would be in the form of traditional disaster relief through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to help victims of western wildfires and those in Texas, Florida and the U.S. territories slammed by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

It also asks for $12 billion for flood mitigation projects, $4.6 billion for repairs to damaged federal property, and $1 billion for emergency agricultural assistance.

It's not just Florida lawmakers pushing back on the relief measure. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said it "shortchanges" disaster victims, especially those in U.S. territories.

“It does not include sufficient funding for rebuilding and recovery, address the impending Medicaid funding crisis that the islands are facing, or provide waivers for cost share requirements that are sorely needed due to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Island’s financial challenges," he said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the measure primarily addresses hurricane damage to Texas and Florida but that aid to the territories will be forthcoming.

"Those storms took place ahead of (Hurricane Maria that struck) Puerto Rico and the assessment from Puerto Rico hasn't been completed yet," she told reporters during the daily briefing. "Once that's done, we fully anticipate that there'll be additional requests at that time."

Unlike the first two rounds of relief, the White House is proposing the increased funding be offset by cuts to federal programs, a move designed to assuage fiscal conservatives in Congress who might not vote for a disaster assistance package that adds to the deficit.

Two previous disaster relief bills totaling nearly $51.8 billion that Congress approved earlier this year had no such offsets.

The Sunshine State is the No. 2 producer of oranges in the world after Brazil. Citrus grown in Florida primarily ends up in juice form on kitchen tables throughout the world. Hurricane Irma in September 2017 affected the state's citrus crop in a big way. Before Irma the total impact of citrus on Florida’s economy was $8.6 billion a year.
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"Agriculture is our state’s second-largest economic driver and these losses will have a detrimental impact on our state’s economy for decades," he said in a statement. "I cannot — I will not — support a proposal that leaves behind over 60,000 Florida jobs."

Rubio said the future of Florida's citrus industry depends in large measure on whether Washington can help them recover.

"We have to ask ourselves do we want to have an agriculture industry in the United States. Because we won't have one unless we get help," the senator said. "And even if they get help, there’s no guarantee that it will happen. But there's a guarantee that many of these growers will leave the citrus industry if they can't get relief."